Meet John Dye – The Soon-to-be Household Name

“The ultimate goal is to be a household name one day.”

You have to love when someone artfully wears multiple hats. The Pensacola based John Dye is one such example.

He has walked New York Fashion Week, modeled for countless photographers, appeared on MTV, and is now back in Pensacola growing his make-up artist business along with orchestrating a fashion week in the late Spring.

Traveling across the south to create custom looks – whether it be avant-garde for a bold editorial shoot or a soft glow for that fairytale Gulf Coast wedding – John Dye’s results speak for themselves.

Saying that he likes to “make people look like star-light beautiful, airbrushed versions of themselves.” Dye credits a love of ‘the ideals of of feminine beauty – big eyes and perfect skin,” at the center of his looks.

Dye takes it even further, offering a tutorial service to clients. “I teach a girl how to do makeup and she can make herself look beautiful and feel confident every day. If I just go and doll you up for one day – you are going to be like ‘I wish I could do that’.”

How did make-up find Dye?
“I can remember one time, I worn black mascara to school and then forgot I was wearing it. It was in the first grade. I just liked how it changed the face and how it made features look different.”

“Then, I wiped my eye and it was all over my face. My teacher thought that I has a black eye. And that was my first experience being made fun of. Like ‘Why was John wearing makeup? He is a little boy?’ And the other kids in my class going, ‘he-he, you’re a girl’. Boy, did the teasing not stop there.”

Relentless teasing plays a big role in Dye’s story.
Even when he recounts the story of talking his way in front of the camera at MTV studios, his victory is partially one for proving his childhood tormentors wrong.

“That was when I was like ‘You know Johnny-boy, all those dreams that you’ve had. All those days coming home from school and being teased so much. You knew you were better than what those people were telling you. Teasing you about being gay, too skinny, bug eyed, and all of those things. It is one of those full circle moments where you are like: Wow! I did it. I did it.”

“I just believe that everything happens for a reason. I think if I wasn’t teased and held down by my peers for being feminine and girlie and gay – I think I wouldn’t have wanted so much out of life. I heard it all. All of that stuff, while it was awful at the time, made me into the man that I am today.”

“So, people are going to make fun of you and say bad things about you – turn it into a positive and let it light a fire within your soul to go above and beyond those hurtful things that people are saying about you. Prove them wrong.”

“I have battled depression, anxiety, a horrible addiction to alcohol and drugs, but if I hadn’t of overcome those things and hit a lot of roadblocks, I wouldn’t have the perspective on life, success, and the fame game that I do now.”

As for Dye’s advice for anyone that wants to be a part of the modeling world; be okay with hearing ‘no’ a lot. “Every ‘no’ will get you closer to a ‘yes’.

What is a bit of make-up advice that Dye wishes everyone would heed?

“There are two things that every day woman do in their makeup that bother me the most: One is the placement of blush. A lot of times women will put blush on the apples of their cheeks. Blush should really be applied to the cheekbone, and then blended outwards and upwards. It is used to contour the structure of your face. So if you put blush on in round little circles like a doll, or like ‘raggedy ann’ – your face looks more round by comparison. So, it really should be brushed outwards and upwards onto the bone to make your face look more, long, lean, structured, and angular.

“The second thing is not softening out eye liner. It is termed eye liner, but it more like a shadow, a soft way to contour and define your eyes. It shouldn’t look like a stark line where it looks like a fat-tipped sharpie was used. Go back over your eyeliner with a shimmering shadow or a highlight – so you blend and feather the edges.

“Hard lines in makeup age and harden woman. Makeup is supposed to make you look younger and fresher. So if things are too harsh, especially eyeliner, it makes you look hard, beat-up and trampy.”